The title of the work was inspired by a quote from Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar:

"I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadows, the million moving shapes and cul de sacs of shadow. There was shadow in bureau drawers and closets and suitcases, and shadow under houses and trees and stones, and shadow at the back of people's eyes and smiles, and shadow, miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth" (italics mine).